Granwood floor cleaning

You will most likely have come across Granwood flooring at a sports centre, a school hall or arena, or even at a local village hall.  It is a diverse product that many choose as a hard wood floor alternative for a floor that is expected to take a lot of foot traffic.  It is much desired because of its incredible durability and low maintenance costs as well as being

".... environmentally sound, resistant to water, fire, wet and dry rot, extremes of temperature and humidity, termites, most chemicals and are guaranteed not to warp, twist, buckle or splinter."

Sourced from: http://www.granwood.co.uk

Granwood has been around for over 100 years, the flooring is basically manufactured from fine sawdust and linseed oil that is made into blocks of various colours and designs.  It is sealed with a product called Granwax.

 "The hard wearing polyurethane seal means that day-to-day cleaning easily accomplished with an impregnated dry mop. For heavy soiling our flooring systems can be wet scrubbed and washed to return them to their original state."

 Sourced from: http://www.granwood.co.uk 

This sealant can last for as much as 20 years (depending on frequency and intensity of use) before it needs replacing.  Once the Granwax ages it will develop a yellowish colour and become quite dull.  To refurbish this the coating is simply sanded back before a fresh coat is applied.

Resealing is performed by trained technicians as this is not like just every other wood floor.  The floor needs to be sanded to a very smooth finish without taking too much of the top layer of wood away.  The dust produced is very fine and will need to be extracted fully before the Granwax finish can be applied.


Here are some images of a job Art of Clean did for Ely Paradise Sports Centre at the end of last year.

Before the work commenced

Sanding back the old layer of protection

Fully sanded

 Part way to re-coating with Granwax

 The finished article - one bright and shining Granwood sports floor ready for many more years of sporting use.

Art of Clean are specialists in: 

Carpet Cleaning,

Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning, 

Hardwood Floor Cleaning, 

Stone floor Cleaning,

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

For more information about our services please contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or visit www.artofclean.co.uk.

 

 

 

Why does my wood floor creak?

Creaking floors are common in old homes.  They can be spooky when your home alone! Or very annoying when your trying to creep out quietly to the toilet in the middle of the night.  

But what makes the floorboards creak?

First you need to remember that timber is a natural porous product that will always be affected by moisture levels.  Although wood flooring is dried and treated in its production it can still take on a little moisture, so when the floor was fitted it is likely that the wood had some residual moisture in it.  The heating in your home will dry out the floorboards and they will shrink.  The boards may then move a degree once walked over.

Timber also has some degree of flexibility in it and will eventually settle into place and not quite how it was laid - possibly rubbing up against another floor board or against a nail shaft creating all sorts of creaks an pops.

How to stop wood floors creaking?

From Below:

If you have easy access underneath the floor (from a basement for instance) it can be much easier to fix a creak.  You will need to get someone to walk over the floor above until you pin-point the offending board/s.

If there is a little gap between the floorboard and joist you can make a shim to sit between the floorboard and the supporting beam so that you eliminate the movement.  Do not insert with too much force else you may raise the board and create a new squeak!

If the joist has worked away and there are large sagging gaps you will have two options:

1.  you will want to reinforce the joist if the gap is very large.  You may want to also create a brace betweent eh joists to give them further structural support.
2.  you can fill the gap with construction adhesive if the gap is not too large

 From Above:

You will have to nail the boards down into the joist, so you need to need to be more specific in finding your squeak.  Slowly walk over the floor until you identify the exact spot where the board creaks.  You must then find the closest joint - the best way to do this is to tap with the board with a hammer, once the sound is flatter you are over a joist, if it over an open space it should resonate more and sound deeper.

Once you have found the joist closest to the squeak you may want to check your accuracy by drilling a pilot hole to see that you have successfully located the joist.  Now drill heavy duty screws through the floor and into the joist.

To cover the screw heads you can fill the holes with wood putty and gently sand the area with a very light grained sandpaper.

Art of Clean are specialists in: 

Hardwood Floor Cleaning,
Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,

Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning, 

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

For more information on our services contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or email us at info@artofclean.co.uk

 

What is the meaning of Parquet

Parquet is the laying of small blocks of wood in a geometric pattern for the purpose of decoratively covering a floor.

The word is of old French origin, thought to be a derivative of Parchet - meaning Park, ie. a small enclosed space.  Parquet differs from the generic term of wood floor due to its artistic design and use of small pieces of wood to create a pattern.

There are a number of styles of Parquet that range in artistic design and difficulty.  To lay a parquet floor takes craftsmanship and skill which is why even the most simple of designs prove to be quite a challenge to a DIY floor layer. 

The most notable designs are the Herringbone arrangement and the basket design, however there is a huge spectrum of possibilities that people explore that yield absolutely stunning results.

Here are the basic parquet designs

This is an example of herringbone parquet

Here you can see a creative take on herringbone parquet

Below is a beautiful and seemingly simple miss-match of wood blocks of different size and colour, making a truly stunning take on the herringbone design

Another fantastic take on the herringbone style of parquet

A geometric parquet design

This geometric parquet has cleaverly used different colored wood to create a 3D effect

Below is a feat of true parquet artistry

Art of Clean are proud of their team oh highly skilled technicians who often perform parquet restoration in beautiful old homes throughout Cambridgeshire  See our previous blog here of work carried out on a parquet floor in Cambridge:

 http://artofcleanuk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/what-find-beautiful-parquet-floor-found.html

For more information about our services please contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or visit www.artofclean.co.uk.

Art of Clean are specialists in: 

Hardwood Floor Cleaning, 

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,
Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning,

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

New Year and our New arrival - It's a Pallmann Belt Sander!

We can now work even faster - giving clients their floor back sooner!

 Thank you to The Ultimate Floor Sanding Company for our new bundle of joy!

Art of Clean are specialists in: 

Hardwood Floor Cleaning, 

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,
Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning,

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

For more information about our services please contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or visit www.artofclean.co.uk.

 

 

 

 

Why Choose to hire an Ultimate Floor Sanding Company

        “We simply, do what we say we will !”

Easy to say, but it’s unfortunately quite rare to find a floor sanding company that does that – which is one reason why The Ultimate Floor Sanding Company™ is so successful.

Giving customers a simple, hassle-free option to have beautiful wooden floors.

It is sad to say but nevertheless true, that there are many substandard, low quality operators in the floor sanding business. Typically people offering floor sanding as a sideline, hiring equipment not particularly suitable to the task and giving no guarantee on the quality of work.

“We have built The Ultimate Floor Sanding Company™ to take away all of the problems from a customer’s point of view” says Terry. “That’s why we offer a fantastic Unique 5 Point Ultimate Guarantee, why we specialise in Floor Sanding and nothing else and why we use the latest equipment sourced from around the world”

Now The Ultimate Floor Sanding company is the largest Floor Sanding Network in the UK and Ireland. We operate through a network of franchises and affiliates all of who have been trained by Terry and the team to deliver the same consistent high standard of finish and service EVERY TIME. That is why we are the the biggest and the best and why we are the only choice in high quality floor sanding for many thousands of satisfied customers.


“Most of our work, comes from satisfied customers telling their friends and family about us – what better recommendation is there?”

Do you want your Wooden Floor to look beautiful?

Art of Clean are proud to be The Ultimate Floor Sanding Local Expert Service Provider of Dust Free Floor Sanding and Refinishing in Cambridge and all surrounding areas.

For more information about our services please contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or visit www.artofclean.co.uk.

Art of Clean are specialists in: 

Hardwood Floor Cleaning, 

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,

Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning,

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

 

Pallmann - for wood floor maintenance

As with all consumer markets markets there is a lot of competition when it comes to buying a product, and the wood floor care industry is no different.

Sometimes our customers request that we use a certain product in their homes as they have researched the options and decided this is what suits them, and we are only to happy to oblige.

Mostly, however, our customers put their trust in our professional opinion, so we make sure we do our homework, keep up to date with the products on the market, and assess what is best - for the wood, for the client, and for our team to work with.

We have been using Pallmann for a number of years now and we feel their products and ethos gel well with our own high standards and industry responsibility that we set for our own company.

PALLMANN summarizes their full range offer for the installation, renovation and maintenance of wood flooring with this motto. We are professionals in the area of surface refinement with a tradition of more than 110 years offer matching products for all aspects of floor construction – from surface treatment, cleaning and maintenance, down to wood floor adhesives, products for subfloor preparation and machines.

Sourced from www.pallmann.co.uk

The present and future mission of Pallmann:

Phasing out solvent based products - Pallmann are working to phase out high solvent based products and currently provide a large range of  low solvent water-based products.  High level solvent based products were regarded as industry standard in recent years, but it has now been proven that the fumes given off are potentially harmful to those working with them and for the people living with them in their homes and offices.

Pallmann proudly proclaimed last year that it provides:

The world’s first completely solvent-free coating system for wood floors

We strive to use the best products available so that we can provide the best service for our customers.  You can find some of the Pallmann range of floor cleaning and maintenance products for sale at our online store, visit www.artofcleanonline.co.uk .

For more information about our services please contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or visit www.artofclean.co.uk.

 

Art of Clean are specialists in: 

Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning,

Hardwood Floor Cleaning, 

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

Is laminate floor a real wood?

Laminate flooring is an engineered wood product that basically has a wood effect images mounted on top.

The bulk of the plank is made up of  high density fibers bound with resin, the base of the board is covered by a moisture resistant backing.  This makes the planks more highly resistant o moisture which is a great advantage over real wood floors.

The visible layer on top of the plank is a high-resolution image of wood with a transparent protective wear layer on top.  Most laminate flooring is highly realistic these days, top of the range laminate flooring has such realistic appearance that it can be extremely difficult to tell for sure if you have laminate of real wood floor boards.

Here is a guide to help you examine your floors to determine whether they are real wood or laminate:

1. Examine the grain of the wooden floor closely. Natural wood grains are random, so if you have hardwood floors, the pattern of the grain will never repeat. Laminate floors are factory-produced, so every few boards will match perfectly. The more expensive the material, the more variation will appear, so don't give up on finding the matching pattern until you have examined a large area of the floor.

2. Check the floor for scratches and dents. Hardwood damages more easily than laminate, so if the floor is covered in small dings and gouges, it is probably hardwood. Laminate does scratch, so don't assume that a single scratch mark guarantees your floor is hardwood -- but a floor showing signs of frequent damage is probably natural.

3. Look for water marks, stains and faded areas on the floorboards. Laminate doesn't stain the way natural wood does, so if you see water rings, random splotches or discolorations on the floor, it is probably hardwood.

4. Determine how the floorboards are attached. If you see staple holes or nail heads on the floor, it is more likely to be hardwood than laminate, because laminate floors are often glued in place.
 

Sourced from:http://homeguides.sfgate.com

One of these two floors are Laminate and the other is solid American Black Walnut ~

Can you tell which is which?

For more information about our services please contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or visit www.artofclean.co.uk.

Art of Clean are specialists in: 

Hardwood Floor Cleaning, 

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,
Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning,

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.